معرفی
Professor Andrea Behrends serves as Director and University Professor at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Leipzig since October 2023. Previously, she held professorships for Social and Cultural Anthropology with a focus on Africa at the University of Bayreuth and visiting/acting professorships at institutions including Freie Universität Berlin, University of Vienna, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, and University of Hamburg.
Her research focuses on mobility, displacement, conflict and intervention, as well as resources, transformation processes, and future perspectives. She examines growth and development regarding African resource wealth and economic redistribution processes, particularly concerning resource production and urban/rural transformation processes. Her work integrates approaches from gender studies, feminist anthropology, and science and technology studies (STS) with critical practice theory. She currently leads a research colloquium on 'Lifeworlds in Crisis,' with a corresponding book published in 2024 by Hurst and Oxford University Press.
Her recent publications demonstrate consistent focus on African contexts, particularly the Chad-Sudan borderlands, examining refugee experiences, bureaucratic processes, humanitarian governance, and resource extraction. Her work shows increasing attention to theoretical frameworks for understanding how concepts travel across contexts while maintaining analytical precision about local conditions.
- President of the Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD) 2021-2023
- Member of the LOST research group since 2011
Professor Behrends teaches core seminars in both Bachelor's and Master's programs in Ethnology/Anthropology, including 'Introduction to Ethnology,' 'Systematic Ethnology,' 'Current Debates,' and 'Anthropology and Communication.' She also leads a writing workshop where students connect empirical data with theoretical analysis. She currently co-leads the 'Plants and Politics' research project (2024-2026) examining the intersection of botanical and political processes.
Her research methodology combines long-term ethnographic fieldwork with theoretical innovation, particularly in understanding how social categories and belonging are negotiated in contexts of crisis and transformation. She maintains strong connections with research institutions across Africa and Europe, facilitating collaborative research projects that bridge academic and practical concerns.
